The EAC Youth Summit (YouLead 2018) held at the MS Training Center for Development Cooperation in Arumeru, Tanzania

The growing commercialization of politics in the East African Community (EAC) is hindering full participation of youth in elective politics both at the national and regional level, Uganda youth leaders have observed.

Jeremiah Amukidosi Etima, speaking on behalf of the Uganda Youth Network at the recent second edition of the EAC Youth Summit (YouLead 2018) held at the MS Training Center for Development Cooperation in Arumeru, Tanzania stated that like in Uganda and elsewhere in the region, candidates use huge sums of money in order to win elections, which he said leaves out the majority of the youth who do not have the cash to finance their campaigns.

He appealed to the EAC secretariat, the organizers of the Summit in conjunction with the German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ) to make policies that restrict use of money in elective positions to create chances for youth who constitute the majority, with the potential to win and take up leadership positions at national and regional level.

He said they feel marginalized since they cannot match the financial muscles of mature people  who have worked for years and have the means to invest a lot of money in their campaigns.

Giving Uganda’s youth position, Etima stated that many young people demand for a review of Article 50 (1) of the 1999 Treaty, which established the EAC and provide for adult suffrage for the election of EALA and include affirmative provisions for youth to enable them win special seats in the house.

According to Etima, the Ugandan youth noted that the slow implementation of the Common Market Protocol by Partner States had affected the opening up of opportunities for youth, especially where Partner States have failed to implement commitments to remove internal tariffs, implement a common external tariff as well as remove non-tariff barriers to trade.

The ideas were an input of youth who attended the National Youth Symposium on the East-African integration in Kampala last month.

Joseph Nemaya Mawa, who presented the voices of youth from South Sudan, stated that youth in their country were concerned with their increasing engagement and spear-heading armed conflicts and highway crime because majority were poor and therefore vulnerable and fall prey to leaders with self-interest.

He said lack of economic and political inclusion had forced many to join wrong groups.

Poor economy, low wages mainly for the youth, lack of capital to startup businesses and cultural factors that hinder girls from employment, low or no formal or informal engagement were some of the examples he brought forward.

Mawa stated that in South Sudan, a citizen from Equatorial region cannot own land in Bahr-el gazelle region and vice versa, which he said would affect their dream for the EAC integration.

Cyrus Munyahuranga from Rwanda was concerned that fresh graduates were not free to move across borders in the region yet the partner states were advocating for integration.

He suggested that young graduates on internship in partner states should be allowed to cross borders to give them a chance to interact and know more about the region as one of the strategies to promote regional integration.

They demanded for the promotion of youth exchange programs and create an alumina platform, enable them to connect with the business sector across countries to increase their voice economically.

One of the participants sharing his views at the summit.

The youth blamed their respective governments for the numerous riots and demonstrations, which they said were a manifestation of a symptom that ‘something is not right’ instead of silencing them using excessive force. They asked the partner states to instead provide solutions to their demands especially employment.

Reacting to their submissions, the Arumeru District Commissioner, Jerry Muro challenged youth to avoid spending a lot of time and wasting their internet data posting non-developmental material but exchange stuff that would benefit their livelihood.

“There are many youth who spend money buying bundles and data but waste it on things that do not benefit them at all,” he said.

YouLead is one of the platforms initiated by the EAC in 2017 and is now part of the structured youth engagement in policy and leadership processes of the Secretariat as provided by the EAC Consultative Dialogue Framework (CDF).